A strike that crippled public transport and closed schools across France entered a second day on Friday, with trade unions saying they planned to keep going until President Emmanuel Macron backs down from a planned reform of pensions. Protesters hold a banner during a demonstration against French government’s pensions reform plans in Paris as part of a day of national strike and protests in France, December 5, 2019.  The strike pits Macron, a 41-year-old former investment banker who came to power in 2017 on a promise to open up France’s highly regulated economy, against powerful trade unions who say he is set on dismantling worker protections. The outcome depends on who blinks first – the unions who risk losing public support if the disruption goes on for too long, or the government which fears voters could […]